Sharing a Room

Below are two pictures from the boys' first night sharing a room. The pictures were taken at story time, which was Xander reading aloud to Nick. Nick slept on that bottom bunk and Xander slept on the top bunk.

Xander has been using the bunk beds Erik made for a couple of years now, but we waited until the boys were more mature to put them in together. They were both excited about it. It was touching to see, actually. Xander often wants his privacy and quiet time away from Nick during the day, but he was pleased as punch to have a new roommate.

(Erik did speak sternly to Nick to keep him from talking last night and his Imaginext dragon was taken away for a day or so. Then everything was quiet.)

After doing a great job falling asleep and sleeping through the night, they woke up still happy and excited about the adventure. There was a new spirit of togetherness between them this morning.

Today I moved all of Nick's clothes and some of his toys over to Xander's closet. One thing I was nervous about was keeping Sandy the guinea pig in the room with the two boys. Nick still likes to pet Sandy whether or not Sandy wants him to. He also roars at the poor thing a lot. He does the same at babies. Nick means it to be friendly, but of course some people and guinea pigs don't like that sort of thing.

So I moved Sandy to Nick's old room. I can't believe the transition has taken place so fast! (We'll see what happens tonight.) Erik and I are thinking Nick's room will now be Sandy's room and the playroom. When we have guests, they will use this room and we'll move any pets, pet supplies, and toys out of the room.

No, we don't have to make them share a room out of necessity. It just seems to make sense. Instead of doubling up on beds, toys, shelves, and rooms, why can't they share everything? It will make for fewer toys and less waste (because I'm not going to allow them to have a bunch of toys in one room where they have the capacity to make a huge mess) and more sharing.

It remains to be seen what we use the other room for in the long haul. It would be nice to have a room for playing games and puzzles. They have taken to playing board games in our room or the living room where we have to step over little tiny pieces until everything is picked up. It would also be nice to have a guest room. We'll put it to that use this May and then at least one more time over the summer. We are keeping it in the back of our (collective) head that we may have to move. If we do, we'd like to get a smaller place to reduce cost and waste. So it's good to get used to living in less space.